The Daily Populous

Thursday December 20th, 2018 night edition

image for Amazon error allowed Alexa user to eavesdrop on another home

FILE PHOTO: Prompts on how to use Amazon's Alexa personal assistant are seen in an Amazon ‘experience centre’ in Vallejo, California, U.S., May 8, 2018.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A user of Amazon’s (AMZN.O) Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of “a human error” by the company.

“This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case,” an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday.

The first customer had initially got no reply when he told Amazon about the access to the other recordings, the report said.

The files were then deleted from the link provided by Amazon but he had already downloaded them on to his computer, added the report from c’t, part of German tech publisher Heise.

“We resolved the issue with the two customers involved and took measures to further optimize our processes.

As a precautionary measure we contacted the relevant authorities”, the Amazon spokesman added. »

France Protests: Police Threaten to Join Protesters, Demand Better Pay and Conditions

Authored by newsweek.com

But some activists are calling on police to walk out on government negotiations, close down police stations and join the “gilets jaunes”—or yellow vest—protesters with whom they have been facing off since November 17.

Such a blow would further degrade conditions for police amid their most pressing deployments for years.

Denis Jacob, a spokesperson for the Alternative Police union, said the police are already “at breaking point.”. »

10 Mind-Boggling Psychiatric Treatments

Authored by mentalfloss.com
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But if you're timid about diving onto a psychiatrist's couch or paranoid about popping pills, remember: It could be worse.

These fractures were no accident; they were the result of one of the earliest forms of psychiatric treatment called trepanation.

Predictably, these patients would develop the disease, which would cause an extremely high fever that would kill the syphilis bacteria. »

Implantable device aids weight loss

Authored by engr.wisc.edu
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New battery-free, easily implantable weight-loss devices developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison could offer a promising new weapon for battling the bulge.

In laboratory testing, the devices helped rats shed almost 40 percent of their body weight.

That gentle stimulation dupes the brain into thinking that the stomach is full after only a few nibbles of food. »